All Courses
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1st Nine Weeks
Students will be working, thinking, and experimenting just like real scientists. Science will not be about memorizing facts or reading from a textbook. Instead, the science curriculum will involve hands-on investigations that allow students to develop a deep understanding of science concepts. As students uncover information about the anchor phenomenon, they will ask questions, discover evidence, generate new ideas, and come up with solutions. Throughout the module, students generate questions about the phenomenon that will be recorded on the driving question board. The driving question board is a chart we will use to organize our questions and guide our learning. We will also create an anchor model and chart to visually express our ideas. These tools help us see how different concepts fit together and how our understanding of the phenomena is deepening. Each module has opportunities for students to use the engineering design process, apply what they learned to solve real-world problems, and present their ideas. For example, in a module on ecosystems, students will research and propose solutions to reduce the impact of invasive species on an ecosystem. Discussion and debate will be part of many lessons, as students will state and defend their claims with evidence and ask questions about others’ claims. At the end of each module, students will participate in a Socratic Seminar that focuses on the importance of questioning. During the seminar, students will be presented with a rigorous question that encourages them to think critically and apply their learning from the module.